Senior Dan Fanelly sank two free throws with :09.2 remaining to extend The College of Wooster’s lead to two possessions, as the Fighting Scots won their league-leading 16th North Coast Athletic Conference Tournament, earned the NCAC’s automatic bid to the program’s NCAA Div. III record 15-straight tournament, and picked up head coach Steve Moore’s 800th career win during a 76-72 win over Ohio Wesleyan University at Branch Rickey Arena on Saturday afternoon.
Moore is the 18th NCAA men’s coach to reach the 800-win milestone, and the fifth to do so this season. He joins Bob Chipman (Washburn University), Bob Huggins (West Virginia University), Rollie Massimino (Kaiser University), and Roy Williams (University of North Carolina) as the coaches to achieve 800 wins during the 2016-17 campaign.
“I’ve had such great fortune to be blessed with so many good players and great coaches helping me over these years,” commented Moore.
Moore came to Wooster just prior to the 1987-88 season, and his presence resulted in an immediate and dramatic impact on the program. Despite inheriting a team that had finished 8-18 the year before, Moore quickly transformed the Scots back into a winner. Wooster improved to 14-11 the very next year – the first of 29 consecutive winning seasons – including an average of 23 wins per year during the 1990s.
For his efforts, Moore has been named NCAC Coach of the Year on eight occasions (1990-91, 1991-92, 1997-98, 1998-99, 1999-00, 2002-03, 2006-07, 2013-14) and the NABC District Coach of the Year for the Great Lakes five times (1990-91, 1999-00, 2002-03, 2006-07, 2009-10). Also following the 2002-03 season, he was voted the Ohio College Basketball Coach of the Year, an annual recognition coordinated and sponsored by the Columbus Dispatch, and in April 2008, the NABC presented him a prestigious “Guardian of the Game” award for education, an honor also once bestowed to the legendary John Wooden.
Wooster, will find out who and where it will play in the first round of the NCAA Tournament when selections are released at 12:30 p.m. on Monday.
